Entertainment

'Lawrence of Arabia' star Omar Sharif dies at 83

Omar Sharif, who became an international sensation after costarring in 1962's Lawrence of Arabia, has died at the age of 83, his agent confirms to Mashable. The Egyptian media first reported the news.

The actor died of a heart attack in a Cairo hospital Friday. Sharif's agent previously confirmed in May that the Egyptian-born actor was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Born Michel Demetri Chalhoub to Catholic parents of Lebanese and Syrian descent, Sharif made his first Egyptian movie, The Blazing Sun (or Sira`Fi al-Wadi), in 1954. The following year, he converted to Islam and changed his name in order to marry his Blazing Sun co-star, the Muslim Egyptian actress Faten Hamama.

Peter O'Toole (left) and Omar Sharif in 'Lawrence of Arabia.'

Image: United Archives/IFTN/picture-alliance/dpa/Associated Press

His fame steadily grew in the Middle East over the next several years — but it wasn't until Sharif co-starred with Peter O'Toole in the David Lean's classic epic Lawrence of Arabia that he found global fame.

Sharif won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for playing Sharif Ali, a fictional composite of the Arab leaders who served with O'Toole's T.E. Lawrence. Still, years later, he was self-effacing about his work in the movie: "It is a great film, but I am not very good in it," he told The Independent in 2012, adding: "I also never thought anyone would go to see the film — three hours and 40 minutes of desert, and no girls!"

In the same interview, Sharif reveals that his trademark mustache was actually Lean's idea. "When I got off the plane, [Lean] didn't say 'hello,'" Sharif recalled. "He simply walked round me to see my profile. Finally, he said 'That's very good, Omar. Let's go to the make-up tent.' I tried on a mustache, and it was decided I would grow one. I've shaved it off for a couple of films, but otherwise I've had it ever since."

The chameleonic Sharif would go on to play title characters in films as varied as Genghis Khan (1965), Che! (1969) and Doctor Zhivago (1965). Though the latter won him acclaim and another Golden Globe, filming it was a bittersweet experience for the actor — in the process, his marriage to Hamama, whom he called "the love of my life," collapsed.

Other notable roles include Barbra Streisand's leading man in both Funny Girl (1968) and Funny Lady (1975) and main parts in several TV mini-series, including Peter the Great (1986) and Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986).

Sharif was also an accomplished bridge player who founded the touring Omar Sharif Bridge Circus in 1967. Reportedly, the Shah of Iran and his wife once invited Sharif to play a round with them.

Sharif was discouraged by the roles he was getting in his career's later stages, so much that he began declining film offers in the late 1990s. He returned to the screen in 2003's Monsieur Ibraham, winning praise for his role as a Muslim shopkeeper who adopts a Jewish boy. Sharif's final film, the French-Moroccan drama Rock the Casbah, was released in 2013.

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